Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Feb 19, 2006 16:45:45	This expansion of the alignment system is for roleplaying reasons only. It’s meant to make characters (PCs and NPCs alike) more complex. Some people are exactly what they seem to be, and are entirely comfortable with being what they are. Not everyone is so fortunate. Some people have a mask alignment--a facade that they pretend to be. And some have one or several shadow alignments--parts of themselves who yearn to become something else then they are now. Some even have both. A mask alignment is a exact alignment other then the characters true alignment. The simplest example is a chaotic neutral trader, con man and rogue, who of course pretend to be chaotic good so that people will trust him more and be more vulnerable to his tricks. A more sinister example is the evil character (any evil alignment), who pretend to be Lawful Good while working on his dastardly schemes in secret. At the other end of the spectrum, we have good people who live in evil societies and pretend to fit in. We have Drizzt, right before he rebelled openly. We have people such as the officially lawful evil daughter of a mighty slaveowner, secretly helping slaves to escape. And so on. In an adventurer group we might have a character who is evil, but pretend to be neutral or even good. Or who is chaotic, but pretend to be neutral or even lawful. The character might not be a infiltrator. It could also be someone who is loyal to the cause and just try to fit in. A evil character might be loyal to a good cause because of personal loyalties, because of a desire for revenge against the villains, for the simple cause of getting more powerful, or, in the case of lawful evil, because of a oath or honor in general. Is the ranger in The Order of the Stick actually evil? Who knows? He’s a good teammate, nonetheless. :-) http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=281 A shadow alignment is something the character is drawn towards. It may be an exact alignment or it might be one alignment axis. For example, a lawful good character might be drawn towards lawful, lawful neutral, lawful evil or evil. (As well as other alignments.) In the first case, he’s not actually drawn away from good. It’s just that he tend to emphasize law. If he’s drawn towards lawful neutral, he longs for “true” lawfulness, unfettered by goodness, and if he’s drawn towards lawful evil then he’s inclined towards a even harsher “justice”. If he’s drawn towards evil as such on the other hand, then it’s the other way around. The commitment law is not what drags him away from goodness, but rather what keeps him there. As an example, take Miko in The Order of the Stick. There is definitely something wrong with her lawful goodness. It might be that she’s drawn towards lawful neutral or even lawful evil. But it might also be that she’s actually drawn towards chaotic good, and overcompensates by acting extra lawful! We can merely guess, since we have only seen her surface and know nothing about her inner turmoil. For another paladin example, I submit my medusa paladin character Slithera. She is lawful good indeed. But she does have two shadow alignments. Neutral Good and Neutral Evil. She regards Neutral Good to be the true goodness, and feels somewhat guilty about walking the lawful path instead. Yet, she needs the lawfulness to keep herself away from evil, and she is convinced that others like her functions the same way. She truly prefers people to be happy and prosperous, death and damnation is not a good thing in her eyes. Yet, in her heart she also truly enjoys inflicting fear and exquisite suffering on others. She love to revel in her birthright powers of poison and petrifaction, and the path of the Neutral Evil goddess Belsameth is very tempting to her. For those who haven’t read much of Scarred Lands, Belsameth and her path is a complex kind of evil. Graceful and heroic in its dark beauty, it has actually saved the world a few times. (In this setting, good and evil gods stand united against greater evils. And it’s actually even more complex then that, but that’s off topic.) Yet it is undeniably extremely destructive, and Slithera realize this. Thus she limits herself by complex codes of honor, striving not to deny her inner nature but rather to channel it in ways that will do as much good as possible and as little harm as possible. It’s a hard and often frustrating path to walk, but she believe that it is worth it.
#2 wotc_mel Mar 23, 2006 11:55:52	*bump*
#3 jenrock Mar 23, 2006 17:27:25	These are both terrific ideas. I will talk to my characters and they will undoubtedly use this in my next game. Great job :D
#4 jaime_wolf Mar 23, 2006 21:05:49	I wouldn't categorize these as different types of alignments per se. I think the alignment system works fine as it is without introducing shadow or mask alignments, I think people simply need to roleplay these masks or shadows rather than making them part of the rules. For instance, you mention Belkar, he's undoubtedly evil (most of the time he doesn't bother hiding it, though he does pull out a lead sheet, claiming that it is "part of his culture" when confronted with detect evil spells). He is still evil, he would still appear evil to a detect evil spell, he just goes out of the way sometimes to avoid letting people know he's evil, and he avoids having detect evil used on him, but his alignment is still evil. Basically, I'm trying to say that you can roleplay the concept of inner turmoil over your alignment or a facade without needing a mechanical concept for it.
#5 gondolier Mar 24, 2006 11:35:47	I'm interested in a discussion of this system. It reminds me of the old Nature/Demeanor duality in White Wolf, and I think that it's definitely worth exploring. The problems, I believe, will arise in the application of game mechanics to the mask/shadow alignment. Do these expanded traits even have a mechanical purpose, or are they simply for roleplaying? I'm not entirely opposed to the latter. As a matter of fact, in my homebrew setting, I've completely done away with alignment as a game mechanic. There is no magical method of discerning one's true philosophical nature, and there are plenty of fantastic roleplaying methods to cover up one's intentions. Of course, my world is a very low-magic world, and thus it's not such a big deal that there's no Holy weapons...just a +1 enchantment should be a pretty exciting find! On the other hand, if a character's actions run afoul of his deity/totem/society/friends, the consequences will be just as dire...they just won't be Capitalized for easy reference. How do others approach the idea of alignment and apparent alignment in their campaigns? -G